Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1887-01-27
TEE COMMISSION ON CITIZEN.
SHIP.

ship is now ready for bust
ness. 1t will be necessary though,
before going into the prime
purposes of the commission, to
agree upon and adopt a code of
rules for the government of the
commission, and some rules of
evidence in the hearing of cases.
The seventh section of the act
contains the most important pro-
visions. and is as follows:
SIC. Z. The commission when
organized shall give a hearing to
any person applying for citizen
ship in the Cherokee nation upon
the ground of Cherokee blood, or
descent, but such applicant must
be a person or The lineal descend
ant of a person whose name APP
pears on the census rolls of the
Cherokees taken by the United
States after the treaty of 1885 and
known as the rolls Of 1885, and the
roll of 1S4S known as the "Mullay
rolls" and the census rolls of the
Cherokees taken by the United
States in 1851 and known as The
"Sela rolls" and the census rolls of
the Cherokees taken by the United
States in 1852, known as the
Chapman rolls" and the commits
sion shall decide in accordance
with the constitution of the Chro-
kee nation ccnferring upon the
national council power to readmit
persons to citizenship and with
the decision of the supreme court
of the United States delivered
March 1st, 1885 in the case of the
North Carolina Cherokees VS.. the
Cherokee nation.
Authenticated copies of the above
rolls are or will be in the posses
sion Of the commission. With
these rolls as guides the duties of
the court are plain. In the dele
CATION to the commission Of that
authority the constitution conlers
upon the national council to read
init to the rights of citizenship
those who were once citizens, but
had moved out of the nation with
their efiects.-and had become citi-
zens of another government, and
applying it to the North Carolina
Cherokees, it may not be so plain.
When the constitution was adopted
perhaps no such a case as that Of
the North Carolina Cherokees was
thought of or deemed possible.
The provision evidently was in
tended to apply to such citizens of
the country who were then in the
country and who might move out
with their effects and become citi-
zens Of another government. The
wording of the provision is evil
dence that such is the fact. The
North Carolina Cherokees have
never moved without the limits of
the nation with their effects. They
simply remained within what was
once its limits, if we take home
and country as a constituent of
national significance. If the term
can be confined to a people, and
the constitutional provision re-
ferred to be held applicable to such
a condition, then the Cherokee
people, in their resemblance Of the
children of Israel in their wander
ings in the wilderness, were 4 ma
tion in a political sense, while en-
route from Georgia, Tennessee and
North Carolina to this country, and
out of which citizen could move
with his effects, and into which he
could return, on memorializing the
national council.
With the solemn pledges OF the
United States government, that
their country should never be en-
braced within the limits Of any
state or territory of the United
States, without their consent, the
Cherokee people naturally believed
that their wanderings had ceased
forever and that it had become
necessary in the view Of a perma-
nent political organization OF their
own, TO establish a fundamental
law and a provision for the benefit
Of those who might wish to return.
The act Of union between the
eastern and western Cherokees, by
which they were united into one
body polite, "under the style and
title Of the Cherokee nation"
specially designates that nation
then about to be created out of the
two fragments of the Cherokee peo-
pie, in a country of their own,
where it was possible, by reason of
that country, perfect body polite
could be organized. The North
Carolina Cherokees took no part in
that organization. They, as re-
cited by the decision OF the supreme
court of the limited States in their